My Most Important Theology Books in Past 25 years!

I got tagged for this interesting little blog game by my friend Scott, whom, I might add, is far more theologically studied then I. As a matter of fact I think I am the only non-seminary student (or grad) to be tagged on this thing so far, so despite the risk of showing up at the theological prom with my pants off, here we go. In no particular order...

My Most Important Theology Books in Past 25 years.

The Story of God: Wesleyan Theology and Biblical Narrative
by Michael Lodahl

I read this book the first time as a sophomore in college. Like many people at that time I was going through a pretty big theological shift, moving from a faith that had been handed down to me to a faith that was my own. Somewhere between rejecting everything I had grown up with and stay complacent with a stale formulaic faith was this book, show what it a relational God really looks like. It's was and idea of God I had seen lived out in the lives on my parents and in the lives of many who shared the faith I had been brought up in, despite not always hearing it from the more vocal "spokes people" of Christianity. It opened my eyes to the true meaning of holiness, for years I blamed it for making it so hard for me to leave the Nazarene church, now I am thankful.

A Woman's Place? Leadership in the Church
by C. S. Cowles

This is another book I read my sophomore year of college (I told you it was a pretty big theological shift in my life). I was taking a class from Prof. Cowles at the time and it probably had a lot to do with how much I liked this book and even more with where I am today theologically speaking. Not only did this book turn me into a feminist but it also changed the way I read the bible. I actually found the whole thing available to read on-line a few years ago too, so if anyone is interested in staring at a computer screen for 4 hours you should check it out. I am also going to credit this book for turning me into someone my wife could fall in love with, and into an Indigo Girls fan.

A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey
by Brian D. McLaren

Now, most of my seminary friends will probably laugh at me for this one. I don't know how much of a theology book it is, it is fiction, but still... I read this one about 6 months ago, and I really wish I had read it years earlier. I had been leery of McLaren, and I don't like the whole "emergent" "non-emergent" label thing, but this book felt like the book I would write if I had the ability to communicate how I felt about the church in written word, which most of you who read my blog regularly know I have no ability to do.

Okay, that's my three from the last 25 years. Now, my number one of all time.

The Giving Tree
by Shel Silverstein

Yeah, that's right, I did it! Sing it with me now: "Theologians, they don't know nothin' about my soul, oh they don't know."

I am tagging: Jenny, Chad, and Lisa.